Weird Bullet Impact Stories

[ETX-Tyler]

I’m a closer range rifle hunter and bow hunter from Texas. I just snagged a Seekins Precision PH2 in 300prc for elk. It’s a great rifle that feels automatic to me out to 650 yards. But I wanted to see what it would do to one of the many feral pigs that we have running around. Last weekend I got the opportunity to test it out. I took a 110 yard broadside shot on a 150ish pound boar (pics included) with Hornaday ELDM 225 factory loaded. The boar was recovered about 25 yards away. The interesting part is that the entry and exit wounds were on the same shoulder with no exit in the offside shoulder. I’ve never seen this happen before and it’s the weirdest terminal ballistics situation I’ve seen in person.


Does anyone else have wild stories or pictures of bullets doing weird things on impact?

 

[ReddingArcher]

My brother in law had that exact thing happen a couple years ago in Colorado on a mule deer. Shot was at about 400 yards with a 28 nosler and Barnes bullets. Best we can figure is the buck spun right at impact and the bullet ricocheted off the shoulder blade and exited. Zero penetration, hardly a nick in the shoulder blade. We bumped the buck out of the sage a couple hours later and he ran out to 650 and stopped and my brother in law finished him there.

 

[ETX-Tyler]

My brother in law had that exact thing happen a couple years ago in Colorado on a mule deer. Shot was at about 400 yards with a 28 nosler and Barnes bullets. Best we can figure is the buck spun right at impact and the bullet ricocheted off the shoulder blade and exited. Zero penetration, hardly a nick in the shoulder blade. We bumped the buck out of the sage a couple hours later and he ran out to 650 and stopped and my brother in law finished him there.

Fast projectiles and bones are weird. Really awesome that he got a second opportunity and sealed the deal. We didn't do an autopsy on this one to see what the bullet did to the offside shoulder. I know it went through both lungs from the blood trail. Wild stuff.

 

[bobinmi]

I had a strange one last year. It actually prompted me to switch over to an all copper bullet for this particular rifle. I shot this doe, slightly quartering at about 90yds. The rifle is a 9.3x62 CZ550fs. The bullets are Prvi Partizan 286grn soft points. It appears to me that that the bullet went full frag grenade upon impact. The left picture is of the ENTRY hole, the second is the aftermath of the exit. You can see that I did a little knife work to remove the front right quarter but that damage in the rib cage is all due to the shock caused by the bullet. I lost almost the entire front right quarter from her due to the amount of damage. The most impressive thing about it is that this deer ran 85yds before piling up in a fence row. Up to that point I've taken 9 whitetails and a coyote with that gun. All one shot kills and nothing like this. The normal holes reminded me very much of a muzzleloader or my 45/70.

 

[WCB]

Only one I have is while guiding a Whitetail hunt...my client and I snuck up on a couple bucks fighting. We came over the top of an irrigation ditch and they were maybe 60 yards away. When they stopped for a second I told the client to shoot. The buck I told him to shoot just barely hunched up but then just started pushing a doe around that I'm guessing the fight was being had over. Since I clearly saw him shoot yards low in between us and buck I instantly said you missed WAY LOW....but he looks hit. He shot a second time and dropped the buck.

Indeed he shot WAY LOW and the bullet ricocheted off the ground and hit the buck just in front of the shoulder showing a perfect keyhole in the skin and tissue below. I'm guessing the combination of watching a deer fight that close and him actually falling into the irrigation ditch and getting soaked just before cause a bit of trigger slappy to set in.

 

[83cj-7]

Strangest I’ve seen was an 87 V-max out of a 6x45 at 2850fps. Shot was about 80 yards and was a perfect high shoulder shot on a very large doe that was nearly facing me. In the scope I knew something odd happened, but didn’t really see what. When we got to the deer, the head was barely attached and the neck was severed nearly in half. A large piece of shoulder blade had blown out of her shoulder in the opposite direction and nearly cut her head off! Oh, and that bullet exited the deer! The 87 V-max is an absolutely astonishing killer if not driven too fast.

 

[ETX-Tyler]

I had a strange one last year. It actually prompted me to switch over to an all copper bullet for this particular rifle. I shot this doe, slightly quartering at about 90yds. The rifle is a 9.3x62 CZ550fs. The bullets are Prvi Partizan 286grn soft points. It appears to me that that the bullet went full frag grenade upon impact. The left picture is of the ENTRY hole, the second is the aftermath of the exit. You can see that I did a little knife work to remove the front right quarter but that damage in the rib cage is all due to the shock caused by the bullet. I lost almost the entire front right quarter from her due to the amount of damage. The most impressive thing about it is that this deer ran 85yds before piling up in a fence row. Up to that point I've taken 9 whitetails and a coyote with that gun. All one shot kills and nothing like this. The normal holes reminded me very much of a muzzleloader or my 45/70.

Thats a lot of tissue trauma. They are so tough. I'm surprised that she ran at all.

 

[JBradley500]

Can the cup and core come apart before impact and have 2 entry holes? Seems more likely than anything else I can think of.

 

[TxxAgg]

Any chance you could've hit an unseen twig before impact?

 

[Hunt4lyf]

I shot a 150 lb whitetail doe last year with a 25-06 and 100 gr TTSX, 80 yards hard quartering to me, through the left front shoulder and exited just behind the last rib on the right side. She ran about 50 yards and when I grabbed her head I felt something hard just sitting between her ears, it was a piece of the bullet. The TTSX came apart and somehow a piece was just sitting there perfectly, no clue how that could happen and I’ve never seen a TTSX come apart like that.

 

[Super tag]

I shot my bull elk last year at 570 yards with my 338 Lapua and Barnes
280 gr LRX, bullet went through the front shoulder blade to the opposite blade, took a hard 90 and was sticking out of the hoof, had gone all the way down the leg and nearly out The hoof on the opposite side of the entry, the Bullet was mushroomed and together perfectly, looked just like the advertisement.

 

[ETX-Tyler]

Can the cup and core come apart before impact and have 2 entry holes? Seems more likely than anything else I can think of.

I don't think so. We debated doing a biopsy but it was 96 degrees and he was already stinky. I was using a eldm and have never had one separate over hundreds of rounds.

 

[ETX-Tyler]

Any chance you could've hit an unseen twig before impact?

No sir. I was an open mowed hay field at 110 yards. Totally clear line of sight.

 

[ETX-Tyler]

I shot my bull elk last year at 570 yards with my 338 Lapua and Barnes
280 gr LRX, bullet went through the front shoulder blade to the opposite blade, took a hard 90 and was sticking out of the hoof, had gone all the way down the leg and nearly out The hoof on the opposite side of the entry, the Bullet was mushroomed and together perfectly, looked just like the advertisement.

That is wild. I have had bullets travel across the hide but never all the way down a limb.

 

[WCB]

Can the cup and core come apart before impact and have 2 entry holes? Seems more likely than anything else I can think of.

100% this can happen....hell bullet cores can get shot out and the jacket stays in the barrel. Bad jackets or whay to fast of twist rates with certain bullets can also cause bullets to basic "explode" in the air and look like you hit the target with a shotgun.

 

[Michael54]

I shot a buck at 60 yards 3 times with my 7mm mag w 150gr core lokts and it never acted like it was hit it just kept eating. It then slowly walked into the woods.I was beside myself that i missed 3 times that close. I thought for sure it was a scope issue. I got down out of my stand and went looking to see how if by some chance i hit it. I found it piled up 20 yards into the woods. When we skinned it out all 3 bullets had grenaded on the entry side rib cage. There was a mini basketball sized hole in the rib cage. I haven't used core lokts since.

 

[Jacack]

Watched a guy shoot a chamois over I'm Spain, clearly hit low in the rocks on a pretty steep uphill but killed that little thing with either rock or bullet shrapnel.

I got a video of it somewhere if I find it I will post.

Pretty sure it was a 28 nosler but not positive I just remembered looking in a spotter and seeing it hit low but the animal rose up on its hinds and ran a short distance before tipping over

 

[Pickettpuncher]

Shot a small buck a few years back with a smokeless muzzleloader. 275 gr bullet pushed around 2775fps. Big aluminum tip. Deer was 25-30 yards. Hit him right behind the should and best I can tell turned and ran the length of the body. When I rolled him over in his groin were blood droplets. Just wonder if the force of the bullet didn’t pop blood vessels. Wish I had took pictures of the deer but I didn’t have this theory way back then. Included is a pic of the bullet.

Another time I shot a deer with a 223. 100 yard shot. Federal fusion. Hit just right on the shoulder and it basically made a glancing shot. After killing the deer and skinning it, I wanted to know where the first shot went. Basically just a flesh would. Quit using a 223 after that. And no, that one shot didn’t sway me, it was the 2 shots at the base of the skull while it was trying to get up that turned me against one.

 

[OXN939]

I’m a closer range rifle hunter and bow hunter from Texas. I just snagged a Seekins Precision PH2 in 300prc for elk. It’s a great rifle that feels automatic to me out to 650 yards. But I wanted to see what it would do to one of the many feral pigs that we have running around. Last weekend I got the opportunity to test it out. I took a 110 yard broadside shot on a 150ish pound boar (pics included) with Hornaday ELDM 225 factory loaded. The boar was recovered about 25 yards away. The interesting part is that the entry and exit wounds were on the same shoulder with no exit in the offside shoulder. I’ve never seen this happen before and it’s the weirdest terminal ballistics situation I’ve seen in person.


View attachment 457312View attachment 457313View attachment 457314Does anyone else have wild stories or pictures of bullets doing weird things on impact?

Animals are mostly water and stuff... and man, if you send a few dozen tracers at any mass of water, you see how much variation there is in the paths projectiles take after impact. Like, everywhere.

 

[Northpark]

Had a 215gr Berger hybrid out of my .300 win mag basically grenade on impact at 200 yards on a small antelope doe. It was a rib cage shot no shoulder contact. It just exploded and never made it to the vitals. I head shot it with the second round to end things quick.